Understanding Creative Media Companies 4 November 2024
For this lesson my objectives were to understand the differences between the different types of companies involved in creative media production and know the difference between horizontal and vertical integration and what they mean for the creative media industries.
The first thing we looked at was the different types of companies involved in creative media production.
Developers/ Producers
A developer is someone that makes the game and adds all of the coding to the game.
Publishers/ Distributers
A distributer is someone that releases the game by marketing and putting it onto social media. The most expensive part of a games production is the marketing.
Exhibitors/ Retailers
An exhibitor is the type of company that is responsible for selling the product to consumers, whether through a retail store, an e-commerce store, a digital store, streaming services.
Subsidiaries - A company that is owned by a larger company.
Vertical integration - When a parent company operates or owns more than one of the stages of production in a single industry.
Nintendo research
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (evaluation of 2D games)
We looked at game play on the PS3 from Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection.
First we looked at Sonic 1 which was released in 1991, made and published by SEGA.
This was the title screen as soon as you enter the game. It clearly shows that it is a 2D game by the landscape and title made out of pixels (8-bit).
The game automatically tells us that the character is meant to go right since it spawns in that way. The rings tells us at the top left corner that we have coins of some sort to collect. And the sonic thing at the bottom indicates that as the player we only have 3 lives in the game to survive.
Reflecting Journal - Developing Contextual Awareness 11 November 2024
We need develop our understanding of how 2D games have evolved through application of critical analysis and demonstrate our understanding of 2D platformer contexts and design elements through practical implementation.
Game Genre:
Game Genre refers to the classification that is assigned to a video game based on its core game play rather than a visual or narrative feature. Some examples include Platformer, Shooter, Fighting, Beat 'em up, Stealth, Survival, Rhythm, Battle Royale, RPG (Role Play Game), MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Game), 4X, Strategy, Visual, Novel, Racing, Tower Defense, Sports Sim, Party, Social Deduction, Sandbox, Puzzle
Platformer genre
Gameplay primarily centered around running, jumping and climbing to navigate the player's environment. They may have enemies or obstacles (known as 'blockers') to avoid and fight or may just be pure jumping obstacles, typically to reach an end goal.
HR: Game Maker's Toolbox. (2017). The Secret of Mario's Jump (and other Versatile Verbs). Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7daTGyVZ60I. Last accessed 2nd Nov 2021.
Verbs - an action a player performs in the game by pressing a button.
Versatile verbs - is the action that can have different outcomes depending on how it is performed, this can include combining verbs to create a new action.
Invisible tutorials - Teaching the player how to play within the levels design in the game world.
Invisible Tutorial
HR: Game Maker's Toolkit. (2015). Half Life 2's Invisible Tutorial. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMggqenxuZc. Last accessed 2nd Nov 2021.
The way we players will know there's an invisible tutorial is that the game itself will place objects like ropes or wire for us to follow to find the next part of the level. Also can be used to bypass enemies by showing in the game what it does to enemies.
There could be characters within a game explaining mechanics to the player which could be funnily or seriously only if the player takes too long to figure it out.
Level Design Workshop
We had to apply our understanding of game design by creating our own levels of Mario on grid paper, in the same way that Nintendo developers do. We had to do this in small teams and the level had to incorporate versatile verbs. I had a nice idea to plan out our level by using an invisible tutorial in it too.
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The main idea I had that we implemented related to the opening section of the level. To introduce the player to the idea of power-ups without any blockers. I used an invisible tutorial to show the player how to collect the power-ups by placing them in an area with no blockers.
We then went into Super Mario Maker and Dovydas and Cristina were building the level but we had a bit of difficulties because we were trying to see the proportions and the wrong pipe Mario was entering and then it all just flopped. But the level still works. The general feedback from the rest of the class was that the pipes weren't working correctly and the platform blocks had to much space in between them therefore they couldn't jump to the next block.
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Intro to Construct 3 - 18th November 2024
Today we were learning on how to make a platformer game by using Construct 3. We started off by adding in an object by double clicking on the white screen and a screen comes up that says 'create new object type'. Then you scroll down till you see 'sprite' in general. Once you have that click on the screen, then it will pop up with an editing screen for your sprite. For now, I just used the colour fill tool and painted it light green (size - width: 250 and height: 250) and pressed the x in the corner to exit. I named my green block 'player' because that will be my player within my game. After I created another sprite and did the same thing but changed the colour and resized it (I went to the icon next to the crop tool) for width: 2500 and height: 250) and named it 'ground'. I scaled my ground and copied and pasted a few times to make it look like a game.
This is what my screen looked like as I did all those steps:
I changed the background screen by double clicking the white screen again then scrolling down till I saw 'tiled background' then I clicked the screen and it took me to the editor screen again. After that I went to the icon next to the save button and inserted a weird furry photo from my downloads and made it into a image repeated again and again. ON A NEW LAYER!!! (Do before!)
(In order to get a new layer you need to right click on the white part where it says layers - layout 1 and press add layer to top.)
Then I wanted my player to move, so I clicked onto my player till things are shown on the side like: instance variable, behaviors, effects, properties etc. I click onto behaviors and it will show for me to add a new behavior. Once I've clicked that I scrolled down to movements and I'll click on 'platform' so the system knows that that is my player to move around. After I went to the 'event sheet' where all the controls and coding of the game takes place. I clicked add event and it takes me to this screen to add a condition. BUT, before that I go back to my layout 1 screen and double click the outside off the box to get another object. So, I scrolled down to 'input' until I saw 'keyboard' and what that'll do is basically let me move my character with whatever letter I want it to move on using the keyboard (clicked it).
NOW, I go back to event sheet and add event. Clicked on keyboard till it shows a 'keyboard' condition and I clicked 'on key pressed' and it will tell me to click on any key that will be my moving controls. Add action after to the 'player' and then I scrolled down till I saw 'platform' and I needed to click on 'SIMULATE CONTROL' for the player going to the left. Afterwards I did the same thing but all of the other directions such as: Right - A and Jump - W.
This is what it should look like once I've done all of those controls.
(can only move using arrow keys for now...)
When you press play the player will fall through the ground and in order to change that, I need to click on the ground object on the right in the projects window. Then I click on behaviors and add new behavior and make it a 'solid'.
I went back to my players behaviors and added a new behavior called 'scroll to' which lets the screen follow the character when they move.
I finally changed my background because it was getting too weird to look at furries all the time. Instead I just painted a random pattern on the editing square.
I also added an image to my player by doing the same thing that I did for the background but just editing the player.
An object is anything you can add to your game or app that does something or looks like something. Think of objects as building blocks. They can be:
Sprites: Characters, enemies, or anything that needs an image.
Text: Words or numbers shown on the screen.
Buttons: Interactive elements like menus or clickable items.
Audio: Sounds or music you want to play in your game.
Variables: Used to store information like score or health.
A behavior is like a set of instructions to tell the game how an object moves, acts or reacts. It's used to save time and to make your game development easier.
Example: A solid makes an object act like a wall that other objects can’t pass through.
An event sheet is like a list of instructions that tell your game what should happen and when. Event sheets are used to control the behavior of objects in your game. You write events and actions here that tell your game what to do in specific situations.
In my game I've so far used the keyboard as an event and the player as an action to simulate control on the player.
Layers are used to organize and control the visual order and behavior of objects in your game.
For example, you can place objects on different layers to control which ones appear in front of others or make certain objects move in different ways.
DDS - Planning for a Game Project
Learning Construct 3 Pt.2 - 25th November 2024
This is the final product of me following all of my teachers tutorials and I ended up with a pretty cool playable game. There are a few bugs like falling off of the platform and the player still alive but other than that, I only decorated the background as one still image with trees and birds.
DDS - How To Become A Game Designer
I found that video very helpful because now I am aware of what you need to do and what to expect to be a Game Designer.
2D Game Project!!
On the 9th December 2024, I wasn't in but Dovydas and Viktor did character photos - photos to take in real life as use them as the player movements like they did in old Mortal Kombat games. (Viktor was the model and Dovydas was the cameraman)
GamesRadar. (2011). Mortal Kombat Demo - Old School GR GamePlay. [Online]. Youtube. Last Updated: 19 April 2011. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs8qp0PKq-4&ab_channel=GamesRadar [Accessed 30 January 2025].
Attack stance
Shocked stance
Fight stance
Walk stance
Idle stance
Ready to fight stance
Shocked at boss stance
Marketing and Making a Game
Pre-production ---> Production ---> Testing & Release
Pre-production - Planning your game's content,
Planning the different materials and outlets for your marketing.
Production - Coding your game in Construct 3
Creating visual assets - Character animations, pixel art, photos
Filming footage for the trailer.
Promotional photoshoot
Post-production - SWOT analysis
Final content
Evaluation
Pre-Production
Sketches
For game layout, characters, layout of poster etc.
Script-writing
For story of the game
Mindmaps/Moodboard/Storyboard
To show what is presented in the game and the aesthetics of the game
Presentation/spreadsheet
To show the rest of the team what is bound to happen and what the game will look like
GDD (Game Design Document)
Organise efforts within a development game
Equipment/Resources
To have the right equipment to the game planning
Things to HAVE:
1. Scheduling
2. Concept sheet
3. References - visual mood board
4. Slice - small prototype (test it to work?)
5. Storyboards
6. Poster concepts - draft designs
DEADLINE: 27TH JANUARY 2025
Theme: Fantasy --> branding Stanmore Studios
USE CONSTRUCT 3
Visual elements - different skills
Visuals have to be ORIGINAL
3 different verbs --> Actions such as running, jumping and one other.
TEAM Roles
I have Viktor, Reni and Dovydas in my team.
Reni: Maintaining the schedule, Poster concept (sketching of 2-3 ideas for the poster), Prototype (making a test run for the game)
Viktor: Level Design, Mood Board, Storyboarding (working together with Leo)
Leo (ME): Storyboarding (working together with Viktor), Animating and building the game on Construct 3, (Helping Dovydas with concept art)
Dovydas: Concept Art (Drawing the character's appearance in fine line art and the backgrounds too)
Mindmap
Story
Player lost their way in a forest and need to defeat bosses to gain special powers to defeat the final boss.
PLATFORM CONCEPT SHEET
Order of what we are going to do:
1. MoodBoard - the aesthetic of the game
2. Concept Art - rough drawing of the character and blockers
3. Level Design - plan of the game and its levels on paper
4. Storyboarding - planning the run time for the game’s trailer, with the visual and audio
5. Audio Planning - when music should cue for inside the game levels
6. Poster Concepts - rough drawing of what poster/ trailer should look like etc.
7. Prototype - a rough draft of the game (test run)
1. MoodBoard
Our group decided to create a platform game that has the aesthetic of an 8-bit game. We also wanted the game to be set in the forest, and the colours to be dull and gloomy. The narrative of the game is a boy lost in the forest. who is trying to get his way back home. In order to get out of the forest he must defeat the forest beasts. Each character in our game is inspired by one student and 4 teachers in the college.
These are the photos me and my team were looking for on images and we all agreed that this is the kind of vibe we are going to go for. Which is a dark fantasy thing, at least it still sticks to the theme of fantasy.
I got inspiration from Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove the most because it's the style we're going for the most. Also, the color scheme is very close to what I think will fit to our game.
Me and my team also decided that our characters are going to look like UNDERTALE characters, same style. We also decided that our MAIN CHARACTER which is our player is going to have a similar build to Frisk in the middle of this image but more in geometry shapes for his body to make him look slim (like: rectangles, squares)
HOWEVER! We decided too that our bosses are going to be bigger than the player by at least 3 times.
2. Concept Art
Player - Main character
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This is going to be the design of our player, we came up with this design because there was a guy called Thomas in college and he looked cool so I asked him if he wants to be the main character of our game and he said yes.
Yasmin - Level 2 Boss
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TJ - Level 3 Boss
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Abdullah - Level 4 Boss
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We went up to teachers of the media block and we walked up to Yasmin and we asked her if she had to be any animal what she would've been. She said a cheetah mixed with a wolf so I went ahead and tried to draw a cheetah mixed wolf hybrid and that's what I came up with and my teammates told me that it's nice.
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We did the same thing for the Media Technician TJ and he said he would be a black panther and since he's always wearing a hat we decided to make him wear a black and yellow hat that says 'Stanmore Studios' on it.
And the same thing with a teaching assistant Abdullah and he said he wanted to be a manticore which is a lion with a scorpions tail and possibly an eagle's wings.
AM - Level 5 Final Boss
This is the AM, it is based from a short story called "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" and this will be the final boss in my game. Those letters coming out of the stone is the attack that it does to the player. That word means 'HATE' in Standard Galactic Alphabet. I got it from Minecraft as a cool reference to use for this.
(I also made the animation just to help out Dovydas because was supposed to finish the concept art from before the Christmas break, so I helped him out by drawing it in the way we all want it to look like)
Dovydas finished the concept art for the characters 2 weeks before the deadline which was pretty bad but at least he sent it over.
This is Dovydas's sketch using a blue ballpoint pen of the Player.
This is Dovydas's sketch using pencil of Yasmin (Level 2 Boss).
This is Dovydas's sketch using blue ballpoint pen of TJ (Level 3 Boss).
This is Dovydas's sketch using blue ballpoint pen of Abdullah (Level 4 Boss).
Unfortunately Dovydas hadn't done the sketch of the AM which is the level 5 boss, but thats okay because I did the sketch to help him out.
3. Level Design
This is Level 1 part 1 as we enter the game. This game will have an invisible tutorial that will show the player what to do and how to not die.
Once the player finishes that obstacle in part 1 the camera then moves to part 2 of the level where there will be blockers being introduced.
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I've started level 1 pt.1 and measured the gaps between each platform so the player can jump onto them.
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Level 2 design
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Ending Cutscene - The End
7. Prototype
I've made the player's jump strength at 450 so it's not too high or too low and enough to jump at least 4 blocks wide.
These are the different things on my screen that show what they are.
5. Audio Planning
For audio me and my teammates were deciding on using music that you'd usually play in 8/16-bit games. I then realised that my older brother actually makes 8-bit music and so then I asked him for permission to use some of his songs/covers into my game and he said yes. Therefore it counts as original music. Although I used two unoriginal songs in my game from two different people.
I used this song for level 1 to play in the background. It's really nice and upbeat and definitely sounds like game music. My teammates agreed that we could use this instead of the rain theme.
I then thought of another song I could used from my brothers youtube account and me and my teammates decided we were going to using this one. This is to play for level 2 when the first boss comes in.
We decided to use this last song that my brother made for level 4 for the third boss.
Reni then came up with an awesome idea on what the final boss's music should be and they came up with the idea of making the last theme super busy and make it sound like it's intense. And this song fit the description, also it is almost the same as Rockm's music.
Rafif Dewantara. (2022). Shovel Knight Treasure Trove OST - The Blades of Chaos (Kratos). [Online]. Youtube. Last Updated: 21 December 2022. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwF9PT8zFMs&ab_channel=RafifDewantara [Accessed 30 January 2025].
This is the level 5, the final boss's music theme to play in the background as the player is fighting the AM.
I thought of an idea which is to make an ending cutscene with the player laying down on the floor with pink leaves falling down to show the player successfully got out of the forest, safe. I decided to use music from ''The Promised Neverland'' and the song is like a calm song called 'Isabella's Lullaby'.
Obata, T. (2019) Isabella’s Lullaby, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b8_89vlkaI (Accessed: 30 January 2025).
This was the extended version but the original song was made by Takahiro Obata.
I used Xanderwood's tutorial on Youtube to see how to get audio and import it into C3.
Xanderwood. (2020). Construct 3 Platform Game Tutorial - Part 17 - Sound. [Online]. Youtube. Last Updated: 30 October 2020. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNe4Q2zkXoM&list=PLrW65LvOdu7IvVzVV_FyAOkGIDu3zu56e&index=18&ab_chan [Accessed 30 January 2025].
He used this website called Freesound.org to get free sounds to use for anything and all you need to do is type the kind of audio you want in the search bar and then select creative commons then select the WAV file so you can use it for C3, because apparently you need a wav. file for it.
6. Poster Concepts
CKibe. (2016). Undertale Poster. [Photograph]. Rome, Italy: Home.
Mat Langford. (2016). Ratchet and Clank PS4 – Review. [Photograph]. Toronto: BiffBamPop.
We want our posters to look like an Undertale poster in a way.
Like a mixture of both, We all like how the bosses in the back of Ratchet & Clank's poster is sorted in the same opacity as the sky with light added to it so you can see them. It really contrasts them compared to the actual player character.
This is a sketch that Viktor made of the poster concept with the player and the bottom and the title for the game which is ''Quest Of the Lost Souls''.
Me, Reni and Dovydas really like the idea of the poster and decided to have the images of the character exported from C3 and imported into Adobe Photoshop.
This is what Reni made (unfinished but on 20th January 2025) in Adobe Photoshop based on Viktor's sketch and she also used the tilemaps from the ground in C3 as the ground in the poster.
This was an idea I made for the poster which I tried to replicate the Rachet & Clank poster in a way.
Production of the Game!!
This is what the edit screen for C3 looks like.
Me and my team decided on what kind of colours we would be using for the ground and what kind of vibe we were going with based on our moodboard. I had an idea which was to colour the blocks brown because usually in a forest there's mud so... I went with that.
This is what underneath the ground would look so it's filled out and doesn't look like a floating platform the player spawns at.
I filled in everything for what the whole of level 1 would look like. But then I changed my mind because on the moodboard the colours are mostly dark blue and black and since the theme is fantasy I decided to make it look more mythical and majestic so I switched the colour around but kept the design. I eventually showed my teammates and they liked it.
This was for the players controls and since I was making the game on a PC I used the normal movements for pc games which is WASD and not arrow keys. Because it's easy to use the mouse with your right hand and press any other buttons too.
This was the level timer on the event sheet on the layout HUD (Heads-Up Display) to show different systems within the level timer such as: PlayerDeath, PlayerHealth.
This is me changing the colour of the tilemap as before it was brown and I changed it to blue to make it more mythical.
I moved onto making the background by adding in similar colours to the tilemaps of the ground such as: navy blue, purple, pink and yellow for stars as if its night time.
This is the moving platform tilemap
(made it 2 blocks wide so it fits the size of the actual moving platform)
This was the ground for level 1.
This is the trees I've made so it look like its trees that are shadowed because usually at night you can't really see the full colour of the tree. And put the highlights to purple and pink because of the clouds.
Parallax means that the lower the percentage is the slower it moves and the higher it is, is that it moves faster like as if it's right next to you.
So I put the parallax only on the x-axis because it's moving left and right only.
70% so that it looks like its close to the player but still moving because if it was 100% then it would be still and unrealistic.
I put the parallax lower than the trees to make it look like the clouds are far away and just creates more depth.
These were the clouds and I put them on a layer under the trees and stretched the tiled background downwards so it duplicates the same amount of clouds.
Decided to put these where the player falls and dies to just look more aesthetically pleasing that a black box.
The parallax is quite low because stars are far from the surface.
These are the stars and they're pretty faint yellow because usually, that's what 2D stars are like.
This is what level 1 looks like after I added all of the parts for the background and in order for the clouds to go behind the trees I 'z ordered' them meaning it would either go to the top of the layer or the bottom and I chose the bottom of the layer.
This is what the whole of level 1 looks like with spikes and coins and an exit added in.
Because we were based in a forest at night I decided for the coins to be like crystals that the player picks up, also I added them to show the player an invisible tutorial of where to go.
My teammates agreed with the design of the coin which is to be a crystal and the animation for it spins around. I also made a behavior for the coin to 'sine' which moves side to side like it's floating. I added the light colour circle in the middle to make the crystal look shiny.
This is the spike design that I made as if it's a frozen icicle and my team members loved the design from the boring original spike I had which was orange and plain. I also changed the shape at the top a bit to make it look broken. I changed the collision box to fit the shape of the spike and not just a box so it works more realistically.
I made the spike take away half of the player's health once, so if you hit it twice the player would die and respawn.
Now, when you die if the timer runs out you will explode and the particles coming out of the player, spawning from the player are little cubes in the colour blue.
On the HUD layer, I have the health bar, coins counter, and timer on it. I made the design by using the same design as Xanderwood in the YouTube tutorial.
Dovydas decided he wanted to have a sword as the health bar in the game so I made a long sword so it fits the health bar size. I just made a random sword and made it look empty so I just added the original blue health bar and dragged it over to fit the sword.
This is the player sketch, the design is from a guy in yr2 level 3 called Thomas.
Idle - (changed the hair outline to dark orange)
Jump
Wobble
Attack - (changed the gun to just the hand)
Ending Cutscene - Breathing
This is once I've put the character animations together and into level 1.
Victory screen after every level has been added to the game with little dialogue on the screen from the final boss.
I added a title screen by using the same tiled backgrounds as there was in level 1.
I made the font into 'Fantasy' to make it nice and bold, I just went with grey and pink because it was the only 2 colours I thought would match the background and stand out.
We came up with the title 'Quest of the Lost Souls' by Dovydas wanting to have 'Quest of the' randomly in there and then Reni and Viktor came up with 'Lost Souls' because the bosses in our game are Lost Souls of teachers in our college. We put it together and came up with that.
This is the event sheet for how the levels are going to go from one to another and how to interact with the start button on the menu screen and the continue button on the victory screens.
I wanted to make my player toggle between the attacking animation and whenever hes walking so in order or me to do that my teacher suggested that I'd use 'Player States'. I wanted to use player states because when the person playing the game presses 'F' it would hold onto that animation, so then when you press space it works and shoots but when the player is walking and you press space the attacking function won't work. I made it so that only the attack animation would work if you have the hand out which is when you press F.
Though I had one slight issue is that it was stopping the player from doing their animations like the wobble animation, it's supposed to have 2 frames playing repeatedly but it's only 1 frame playing. But I didn't fix the issue because it was too complicated. As long as everything else is working, it should be good.
Since this was a complicated but worth it feature, I managed to make it work.
Player States - Player State is used to replace 'Player Controller' in network replication for all clients so it is exist through out the level with Player Controller and it use use to store the variable that matter even if your character is not there or dying like score, level, kills, deaths.
Info from: https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/player-state-vs-player-character/319281
LEVEL 2 - YASMIN
LEVEL 3 - TJ
4 of the songs were original and 2 sounds were original which were the jump and footsteps.
Lastly, I made the ending cutscene where it has the player laying down on the grass sleeping because he finally escaped the forest and he is exhausted.
Reflective Journal - 6th January 2025
In today's class we started off by having a team meeting and we were just catching up on our progress so far, before we created a new team schedule for this month.
In our team, I was more concerned about the audio in our project because of music cues how long the music will play for, and when the next tune will come in.
Reni thought that the hardest part of our game would be the coding because she's making the prototype, Dovydas also thought that coding would be the hardest. Since they have me doing the actual game they're in luck because I'm doing fantastic so far.
Reflective Journal - 13th January 2025
Today, we had a team crit in class which means that other people from our class play our game (the prototype) and comment on it by telling us what they like or don't like about it. This helps us by letting us know what we can add or change in our game to make it better than what it already is. We got feedback mostly on how the enemies were too big and cover up most of the screen and how their too easy to defeat.
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Team Meeting - 20th January 2025
On this day, I was talking with my team on making a schedule that all of us could follow and see what we have to work on for the week that we have left to complete what we can. The teacher called me up for a 1-to-1 because he heard me talking to my teammates only talking about what I have to achieve and not actually telling them/ helping them with what they need to do. That I needed to negotiate with them. It was pretty hard to do that but eventually I found out something for all of us to do together which was to record foley sounds as an original sound effect for our game. We then planned together and it all worked out.
I also had help with making player states for my game where I can toggle between animations. It was pretty confusing at first trying to understand it but my teacher helped me out and understand it easier. It ended up making my game more understandable mechanically.
FINAL PROJECT & Team Crit - 27th January 2025
Today, we had another team crit and our peers were commenting on our game to see the rest of our progress if we finished it, and if it's actually playable. Everyone almost had the same feedback which was that the enemies were too easy too defeat. That's only because I didn't quite get to finish the enemies health bar part and the damage taken.
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FINAL PRODUCT!!! - 27th January 2025
Final Evaluation - 5th February 2025
My task for this project was to try and work in a team to create a original 2D game and honestly I think that we created a pretty successful game. Our game took a lot of changes and decisions to be made for the finalised piece such as adding in a mechanic to make the player attack the bosses and what the player would use to actually attack the boss as if it was going to be a gun or the player has magical powers and uses their hand. Also, we decided that there wasn't going to be any little enemies in level 1 to block the player from proceeding. We made this decision because it would've been too much for level 1 and since that's only the first level.
During the project, I've had issues mostly with the actual coding like putting my ideas to life into the event sheet. I had an idea which I wanted the player to get the gun in level 2, just to spawn in with it and so you could toggle the gun whenever you'd have to use it. But I got help from my teacher and he said that I would've needed 'player states' and to change up the whole code. I tried to understand his explanation and made it work a bit. Only that I changed the gun thing and discarded that and the player would have the flares already from the start of level 1.
I didn't have any issues with organising all of our ideas and putting it together. However, I already had a clear idea of what I wanted the game to be like and I told my teammates and then they tried to change up my plan and I didn't really like that. On the other hand, I just let them do that because it was selfish of me to just have my ideas and not anyone else's. I took their ideas to mind and made it come true by building the game. Turns out their ideas did make the game better than I had planned it to be and it was successful.
With help of the team crits that we've had, they have helped me with other people seeing problems in my game that I couldn't see. I've improved on how to use Construct 3 and how to make the game work and look aesthetically pleasing.
I mostly had challenges with negotiating with my team because I needed one of my teammates to hurry up and do the concept art but since they took a very long time to get it completed I ended up taking their role and doing it myself because I hate leaving things last minute especially when it comes to something I like. I kept pressuring people in my team to get something done before a certain day of the week. I did get the art eventually and put it on my blogger. Unfortunately, I was being too selfish and kept saying that 'I was going to do this' or 'I'm going to get this done'. Always talking about myself and not actually communicating with my team members about them. But even though everyone had a role, it just felt like I was doing everything as if my teammates had trouble communicating to the actual project and rather than to just me.
We used invisible tutorials in level 1 (inspired by Sonic), I wanted to put an invisible tutorial in level 1 because since it was something that I'd learnt recently I wanted to apply that knowledge into a game that I've made for the first time. However when we had our first team crit, almost everyone that tried out our game said 'you need to tell us what controls to use otherwise how would we know?'. So I improvised and added the basic controls in the menu screen so people know. Then the invisible tutorial will happen in level 1. Also, my teammates used the help of those 2 guys from Japan working for Nintendo, make level designs on grid paper and measuring the boxes in between each jump and arrows to show what each little part means.
I think that the game's shortcomings have to be that the bosses don't actually attack the player and that the player can walk right past them, this is because I forgot to turn the bosses into solids and then player could only walk to the exit if he kills them. Possibly also that, I didn't get to remove the timer, because if some people are not used to playing pc games, they would need some time to adjust to the settings for the movement. I would say too that the tilemaps and look for the levels 3 & 4 aren't finished so it looks boring.
Me and my team could've made more easier decisions to add to our system in the event sheet, meaning that I could've had easier options than making player states etc. The audience told us that our game was pretty great and playable and that the music and sounds were good and upbeat, that they'd play it again. They hoped that I had finished the whole game by adding the bosses health bar, attack damage to player, player attacking the bosses a few times before it dies, tilemaps being done on all levels etc. The audience's feedback was mostly positive's. The only negatives they had to say was just that the timer ran out too quickly and the enemies. I think that would be an easy fix.
Working on this game has impacted my ideas for future projects by giving me an idea of whether to avoid making a whole game for my FMP or going for a challenge and making one. Making a 2D game has generally been so fun, especially coming up with how the game will look like and turn out.
I would say this project was pretty successful, and I'm happy how we've overcome our problems as a team and managed to still work together. I've learned that when I'm in a team not everyone will be as good as I am at something and I can't get mad at them for not having the same knowledge as them, but to try and help them be a better version of themselves. I will carry forward my knowledge on how to make a game and how to organise things as a team and I will also carry out on how to plan a schedule for when to get things completed by a specific date because that was a bit of a downfall for this project.
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